Sea of Thieves Developer Talks About Balancing Content for New Players and Veterans

Sea of Thieves, the upcoming shared world action adventure game from Rare and Microsoft, looks like the most charming, typically Rare in their heyday kind of game ever. At the same time, however, it also looks like it will be a game that goes head to head with titles like Destiny, The Division, and Monster Hunter– entrenched “lifestyle” games that have millions of players sinking dozens of hours into them on a weekly basis.

One way that Sea of Thieves can hold its own against these games is by remaining compelling for new players, while also not diluting its nuance or complexity for existing players. In an interview with Official Xbox Magazine (March, Issue number 161), Rare discussed their approach for doing so.

“Although the complexity of the Voyages and the threats the players experience in the world will increase as they progress through the game, we wanted to ensure that we didn’t do anything that would potentially separate a first-time player from another who may have played for countless hours,” lead designer Mike Chapman stated.

That said, this doesn’t mean that high-level and end-game content will be dumbed down or bereft of challenge, either. “I believe that is sometimes a common misconception of games that don’t have power progression. A lot of the games that do have that kind of progression are just pulling a psychological trick, where as a player’s stats increase, so do the stats of the threats you need to face. In Sea of Thieves, you’ll face stronger and more numerous challenges.”

That sounds intriguing enough on its own, of course- but it will be interesting to see how Rare can keep a steady stream of unique challenges that are challenging for new and veteran players alike going on a long term basis. Sea of Thieves is due out in March on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs.

You can check out the story for Sea of Thieves, and get more information on the game, in Official Xbox Magazine’s March issue. You can subscribe to the latest Official Xbox Magazine over here.